
{"id":15855,"date":"2011-02-10T10:16:29","date_gmt":"2011-02-10T15:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=15855"},"modified":"2011-02-10T10:18:56","modified_gmt":"2011-02-10T15:18:56","slug":"board-reviews-%e2%80%98diet%e2%80%99-for-main-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/02\/10\/board-reviews-%e2%80%98diet%e2%80%99-for-main-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Board reviews \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcdiet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for Main Street"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Kirk Ross<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>CARRBORO  \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Carrboro is considering a plan to slim down West Main Street along the road\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s four-lane stretch near Town Hall, adding bike lanes and dropping the number of travel lanes for cars from four to two, plus a turning lane. The move could make the street far safer without leading to traffic backups, according to a plan reviewed during a Tuesday night work session of the Carrboro Board of Aldermen at Town Hall.<\/p>\n<p>The proposal is a variation of previous concepts in the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Vision 2020 plan and other transportation studies for what to do with the wide, four-lane stretch of West Main Street between Weaver Street and Hillsborough Road. The design calls for restriping the street to reduce the four-lane cross-section to two travel lanes and a center turn lane and bike lanes on each side of the street.<\/p>\n<p>The town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Transportation Advisory Board asked the board of aldermen to present the idea to the state Department of Transportation to see if the state will help pick up the tab for the new road markings.<\/p>\n<p>Board member Jacquie Gist said she thinks the idea is worth pursing, especially since the design has the backing of both the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s transportation board and the UNC-based Highway Safety Research Center. In addition to providing for more bikes and slowing traffic, it could make getting across West Main Street easier.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It could solve a problem that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had a fair number of citizens complain about,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Gist said.<\/p>\n<p>The idea is also appealing, Gist said, because of the potential for the state to pick up the tab, and because if the design isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t working it can be undone easily.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just paint,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If we were going in and rebuilding stuff, that would be different.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>In other action Tuesday night, the board approved a set of legislative priorities, including new requirements being pushed by the state League of Municipalities for counties that change their sales-tax distributions. Municipal leaders in Orange County have kept a wary eye on the county\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s budget plans ever since the possibility was raised last year that the county might change its sales-tax distribution formula to help fill its budget gap. Carrboro Town Manager Steve Stewart said the town could see as much as $1 million in sales-tax revenue dry up as a result.<\/p>\n<p>The league, which lobbies legislators oh behalf of its member towns and cities, wants the state to require counties to hold a public hearing before implementing a change in the distributions. It would also prevent the changes from taking effect for a year and require them to be phased in over four years.<\/p>\n<p>And since February marks the end of a number of terms on the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s advisory boards, Tuesday night\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meeting was also marked by a slew of appointments and reappointments. They include:<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Board of Adjustment \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Sriv Navaratnam;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Planning Board \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Damon Seils, Michael Rodgers, John Killeen and Susan Poulton;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Appearance Commission \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Tom Wiltberger;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Transportation Advisory Board \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Heidi Perry, Kurt Stolke and Terra Curtis;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Recreation &#038; Parks Commission \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Jonah Garson, Gini Bell and Jaimee Watts;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Human Services Commission \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Seth Maid and Earleen Burch;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Economic Sustainability Commission \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Terri Turner, Brian Russell and Christopher Stephenson;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Environmental Advisory Board \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Dana Stidham, Nina Butler and Bruce Sinclair;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Northern Transition Area Advisory Committee \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Jay Bryan; and<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Arts Committee \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Steph Russ and Laura Korch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carrboro is considering a plan to slim down West Main Street along the road\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s four-lane stretch near Town Hall, adding bike lanes and dropping the number of travel lanes for cars from four to two, plus a turning lane.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15855"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15862,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15855\/revisions\/15862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}